Same-sex marriage: a defense based on foundations of natural law

• Main Author: Pablo Antonio Lago
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Escola de Direito
• Series: Revista Direito GV
• Subjects: Casamento entre pessoas do mesmo sexo; conceito de casamento; Direito Natural; razão prática; John Finnis
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1808-24322018000301044&lng=en&tlng=en

Abstract Laymen in general associate natural law theories to conservative moral conceptions, like traditional marriage of a man and a woman. That makes sense when we notice Catholic Church's position about matrimony or even academic marriage conceptions as the one claimed by John Finnis. But would be possible to defend the so called “marriage equality” in natural law grounds? This paper aims to answer this question affirmatively. Departing from a critical analysis of Finnis’ natural law theory and his marriage conception, I argue that a better matrimony conception needs to be grounded on a wide vision of human sexuality, which encompasses lesbian and gay couples. Instead of procreation (which is one of the marriage points in Finnis’ conception), human experience shows that sex is not limited to breeding - it is a way people can achieve pleasure and high levels of intimacy, regardless their sexual orientation. I conclude that this way of conceptualizing human sexuality is “far more evident” than the one suggested by Finnis and is also consistent with Germain Grisez's interpretation of Aquinas’ first principle of practical reason - with which Finnis himself agrees.